TITLE:
A Study of the Subjectification of the Chinese Word Suoyi
AUTHORS:
Qingshun He
KEYWORDS:
Subjectivity, Subjectification, Grammaticalization, Suoyi, Discourse Marker
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Modern Linguistics,
Vol.4 No.3,
July
23,
2014
ABSTRACT: Subjectivity
is an essential characteristic of language. In recent years, the subjectivity
of language has been attracting the attention of the linguists. Two main
research strains have developed, one being represented by Langacker, and the
other by Traugott. The former studies subjectivity synchronically from a
cognitive perspective, noting that in addition to the proposition meaning, language
also expresses the speaker’s attitude, while the latter studies the process of
subjectification from a diachronic perspective, pointing out that language
tends to evolve from objectivity to subjectivity. Taking the Chinese word suoyi as an example, this research
studies the process of subjectification, finding that the grammaticalization of suoyihas gone through three stages
from a prepositional phrase through a causal conjunction to a discourse marker.
In this three-stage process, the conceptual meaning has been declining, and the
procedural meaning and the subjectivity have been strengthened.